Patna, Apr 12 : Political activities are on a high ahead of the general elections as leaders of various parties are exuding optimism of gaining peoples confidence.

Janata Dal- United leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday slammed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan for taking actor Sanjay Dutt’s support to pull crowd.

"You can see that Lalu and Paswan used to consider themselves crowd pullers. But now they have to call Sanjay Dutt to conduct meetings and pull crowd. What can be worse than this?" Kumar said.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) General Secretary Amar Singh said his party’s alliance with the RJD and the LJP would pose a formidable challenge.

"If in the past Lalu, Mulayam and Paswan would not have committed certain mistakes, there would have been neither Nitish in Bihar nor Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh. We have decided to forget the past, set the present in order and lay the foundation for a better tomorrow," Singh said.t the same time, former Union Minister Buta Singh has decided to contests polls from the Jalore parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan after being ‘ignored’ by the Congress.

"I wanted to contest from the Ganganagar parliamentary constituency. In fact my sources in the party told me that I would be given the ticket. But at the last moment the ticket was iven to someone else. So I came back to my old constituency at people’s beckoning," Singh said.

New Delhi, The Janata Dal (Secular) of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda today said the party would not have any truck with the Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad combine if they continued to support Congress’ Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Ministerial candidate.
Talking to mediapersons JD(S) Secetary General K Danish Ali said the party was totally committed to keepup out both the BJP and Congress out of power and if Samajwadi Party, Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Ramvilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti were to accept the Congress PM candidate as their own, the JD(S) could have no truck with such parties.
The JD(S) which has its main base in Karnataka will contest about 40 Lok Sabha seats in the country, including 26 of 28 seats from his home state Karnataka. The party had conceded two seats for the Left parties.
He conceded that there were differences with the Left and Democratic Front in Kerala and the party was hopeful of sorting out at the local level.
He said Mr Gowda will release the party’s manifesto on April 6.

Hectic lobbying in Manipur, Arunachal

Imphal, March 7 : With four Left parties and the Janata Dal (Secular) agreeing to forge an alliance, the Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency is set to witness a triangular fight. There will, however, be a multi-cornered contest for the Outer Manipur seat. After four Opposition parties joined hands to put up common candidates, four Left parties, including the CPI, a partner in the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Secular Progressive Front ministry, reached an “understanding” to form an electoral alliance at a meeting held today. Leaders of the CPI, CPM, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Forward Bloc and the JD (S) today held the first round of meetings at the CPI office here. The CPI has four MLAs while the other Left parties and the JD(S) do not have any representation in the Assembly. On Wednesday, the Manipur Peoples Party and the NCP, with four MLAs each, along with the National Peoples Party (three MLAs) and the Manipur State Congress Party announced common candidates for the two seats. Former Manipur University professor N. Mohendro Singh was named the common Opposition candidate for the Inner Manipur seat while tribal leader L.B. Sona from Churachandpur district was declared the common candidate for the Outer Manipur constituency. Former cabinet minister Moirangthem Nara Singh is among the first list of 33 candidates announced by the CPI national council on March 27. He will be contesting from the Inner seat. However, the CPI has decided not to field any candidate in the Outer seat. In the last parliamentary elections, Nara Singh finished second from the Inner seat. Thokchom Meinya Singh of the Congress is the sitting MP. “We have discussed the present political scenario in the country. We have an understanding to form an alliance to ensure the success of the CPI candidate,” B. Sharma, former state secretary of the CPI, said after the meeting. The meeting was attended by two leaders from each party, including health minister Pheiroijam Parijat Singh who is a CPI national executive member. It, however, did not take any decision except an “understanding” for the formation of an alliance. The parties agreed to hold another round of meetings on March 9 to finalise the alliance. The Congress is yet to decide on its candidates. Though the CPI decided not to contest the Outer seat, it will not support the Congress in the Outer constituency. “We have not decided whom we will support. But it is certain that we will not support the Congress. This is because supporting the Congress in the Outer seat while having a friendly fight in the Inner one will confuse voters,” a party leader said. CPI leader A.B. Bardhan will be reaching Imphal on a two-day visit on March 21 to oversee his party’s poll preparations in the state.